The animals at the Barcelona Zoo also eat ice cream in summer

A larva ice cream may not sound very appetizing to many, but, for a meerkat, it is a delicacy, even more so in summer. Jam, condensed milk, trout, omelet or frozen yogurts are some of the delicacies that the animals at the Barcelona Zoo eagerly savor during the hot months, a period in which all facilities are adapted so that they better cope with the increasingly high temperatures.

According to the diet of each species, a varied repertoire of ice creams is offered, explains Pilar Padilla, mammal curator at the Barcelona Zoo. If meerkats, popularized by Timon in The Lion King, like larva ice creams; the three elephants at the Barcelona Zoo are given frozen watermelons and, chimpanzees, soup or juice ice creams. The preparation is easy: they cook the dishes and then add water to freeze them. The ice cream supports can be multiple, thus generating varied shapes, from old basketballs to logs, with the aim of stimulating them in different ways, making them dig, jump or burrow.

Sito Alarcón, director of the Barcelona Zoo, adds that giving them food with ice also helps them hydrate and activate by playing and licking while they find food, before they get drowsy from the refreshment they have ingested. That is why these creative ice creams are also given during winter, although to a lesser extent.

As anyone would, the park animals even fight to not run out of the desired desserts, as in the case of the meerkats. Although there is enough for all, when the caretaker appears with the ice creams, a battle begins to be the first to grab one and there is even an individual of this mammal that wants to keep them all.

The refreshing diet is accompanied by other measures, such as ensuring they have enough shade and water to drink or that their resting areas are well ventilated and at a good temperature. Some rooms have fans. For aquatic animals, such as hippos or otters, it is checked that the water is fresh and clean. For them, there are frozen apple ice creams and, for them, frozen fish hidden in a log. The same is done in the mudflats, where animals like elephants or warthogs ---following The Lion King, it would be Pumbaa--- cool off.

For aquatic animals, such as hippos or otters, it is checked that the water is fresh and clean

These heat measures have been carried out at the Barcelona Zoo for some time, and over the years, better ice creams have been devised and new shapes have been given to them. This year, the protocol had to be brought forward with the early rise in temperatures that arrived in spring. Although the temperature in the park is on average three degrees lower than in the rest of the city, due to its location and abundant vegetation, Padilla points out that they already activated heat measures during some weeks in May. In June, the heat gave a little respite, but in July and August it has returned with force.